I finally tracked down the details for our $1234 refund from our mortgage escrow account. In short, it was thanks to the insurance fiasco we’ve been dealing with, which thankfully is just about finished. At one point the mtg company was under the mistaken impression that we had been without insurance for a year, and they arbitrarily assigned a new policy (in arrears, which is dumb because we didn’t have any claims during that time). When I pointed out to them that according to their own records, we had full coverage for the entire span of time, they not only issued written confirmation of that, but they also issued us the refund for the amount that they used to pay for that unnecessary coverage. I was on the phone with the escrow gal for a good while, working through all the calculations for that coverage, our cancelled coverage and the new coverage we just lined up. After it was all said and done, I asked “soooo, it looks like we get to keep this escrow refund, free and clear. Am I understanding that correctly?” She said “Yep!”

So, we have an unexpected $1234 sitting here on my desk, staring at me. We’re going to talk about how best to allocate it this weekend. But I wanted your collective feedback.

We would seem to have four basic options to choose from in terms of how to spend it:
1) normal monthly household bills, including the mortgage, as a way to have an “easy” month
2) pad the snowball and pay off, or pay down, a few debts
3) put it in our BEF and/or other savings
4) apply it towards our ongoing investment in the farm, in terms of equipment/infrastructure/supplies needed to generate more income

I can see strong reasons to do any or all of the above. I have also thought about just dividing it up four even ways, and applying it to each category equally. But I really don’t see any clear advantage to any one option. Does anyone have any suggestion for how to spend it, and why? Sort of a fun dilemma to have……..